Robot World

Hot on the heels of The Aim, Robot World elevated Bailter Space to even more fascinating levels, their winning combination of arty edge and wistful flow honed even more thoroughly than before. "Begin" not only starts the album but captures the trio's increasingly fascinating touch, with lyrics half heard in the feedback and crunch. It's more gently abstract, exchanging overload for a more stripped down, yet equally produced, power. Sometimes other hints of MBV's massively influential reinterpretations of rock do surface, as on the brief "Fascination," which sounds almost like a cross between Kevin Shields and Xpressway-style lo-fi experimentalism. Hints of the latter also surface on "EIP," with its buried percussion and strange clattering. But all in all, this is Bailter Space steering its own fine path. "Be On Time" is a cousin to The Aim's "We Know," but with a slightly different melody in the nearly incomprehensible verse. Sometimes the band retreats from their often elegant compositions: "Get Lost" is almost a punk-style thrash, at least at the beginning, though the mixed-down vocals and alternately ugly/beautiful guitars readily identify it as a Bailter Space track. When it cuts into a slightly slower pace a couple of minutes in, it suddenly assumes an even greater power and beauty, achieving once again that perfect synthesis of the two sides of the band.